This proposal is part of an ongoing diachronic research on ter and haver (‘have’) in Portuguese, focusing in particular on the emergence of deontic constructions with ter. In this article I analyze data retrieved from a diachronic corpus and discuss the chronology and conditioning factors of the changes involved in both the disuse of ser teudo de [have-passive Prep] INF, a construction largely attested in Portuguese past stages, and the innovation ter de [have Prep] INF. Both constructions appear to have similar deontic readings, yet the datasuggest that they are not diachronically linked, the latter appearing only in a much later period. Following the presentation of theoretical and methodological issues, the retrieved data are described and discussed, the main conclusions being that: the obsolescence of ser teudo appears to be related to morphophonological factors (probably among others); the modal construction ter de INF emerged late in Portuguese and is probably a variant of ter que INF; ter que INF, the original deontic construction, emerged by reanalysis of structures where que was originally a relative pronoun (referring the object of ter), in ambiguous contexts which favored the new interpretation of the structure as a modal construction.